Thursday, 31 October 2013

This month, we are celebrating PKL’s 25 year anniversary. Over the last 25 years, we’ve undertaken 10,000 temporary kitchen hires across multiple sectors throughout the UK and around the world, and have grown to become the UK’s leading provider of outsourced catering infrastructure solutions.

Over time, the business has expanded to employ 85 people, and we now have a management and senior operations team with a collective experience of well over 100 years of working for the company, many of whom have been with us since the early days. Operating from our purpose-built head office and warehouse facility, we own 900 portable kitchen units and over 10,000 items of catering equipment which are hired to a variety of customers during kitchen refurbishments, events or during kitchen emergencies.

Some of our notable installations over the last 25 years have included large scale kitchen and dining facilities for numerous major sporting events around the world, facilities for the military in the middle east, and installations at prestigious UK sites including Buckingham Palace, Glastonbury Festival and a number of Oxford and Cambridge colleges.

The PKL Quay over time. The first image was taken 10+ years ago, the second was taken today.

In the last few years, we’ve used our experience from providing temporary commercial kitchens to move into the supply of permanent modular kitchen buildings, via our KitchenPod and Food Cube products. This has resulted in local installations at Beaufort Co-operative Academy in Gloucester and Cleeve School in Cheltenham, as well as a number of projects around the country, including supplying 100 KitchenPods to schools in Northamptonshire. In addition to these products, our recently developed modular camp kitchen and dining solutions have been supplied to a number of mining and exploration sites in Africa.

Two of our favourite photos from the PKL archives.

One of our latest developments has been the launch of KitchenFM for Schools, which is a new product designed specifically for the education sector. Following the announcement of the School Food Plan, we developed KitchenFM for Schools with support from the Children’s Food Trust. This new contract hire solution is aimed at schools looking to expand or refurbish their existing kitchens so that they can introduce or increase their school meal provision.

Over the past 25 years we have helped a large number of establishments to implement changes to their catering and dining infrastructure. We have developed a number of innovative catering solutions which have played a significant role in shaping the future of the UK’s education, health and leisure sectors, as well as ensuring that we remain the UK’s leading supplier of temporary catering infrastructure.

Our latest staff picture and a recent office photo.

We are very proud of our achievements to date and will continue to build on our expertise and knowledge. As we look to the future, we look forward to maintaining PKL’s position as a major kitchen infrastructure solutions provider on an international scale. We will also continue to build on our strong reputation for innovation, through our work on developing new and exciting solutions for the fast moving sectors in which we operate. Here’s to the next 25 years!

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Today is National Poetry Day so, never ones to shy away from a good limerick (or eleven...), here is a poem we have written about school kitchens. Enjoy!

An Ode to School KitchensWith the School Food Plan launched recently,We hope schools will embrace it and seeThe importance of foodAnd how it lifts a child’s mood.Our advice we can offer for free.If your current school kitchen is badAnd your poor cook is feeling quite sad,Cheer up, come alongClick SchoolKitchens.com -Our ideas are totally rad!With school meals hitting the newsAs they’ll be offered free up to Year 2s,Prepare your facilities And your school meal abilities With our school options – click here to choose!A modular-built KitchenPod,Installed in a jiffy by our squad,Is a proper kitchen buildingWhich your cook can show their skills in -You could expand your school menu with… cod?If your equipment is haunted by ghouls,You need KitchenFM for Schools!Hire equipment hassle-freeFor a fixed monthly feeAnd your cook will have all the right tools.A Food Cube is ideal to useIf your lunchtimes are spoiled by queues.Install one outside,Watch your revenues rise -You really have nothing to lose!With Food Tech from 2014Compulsory up to Key Stage 3,Learning institutionsMay need new solutionsAnd ours are the best that we’ve seen!If you need more Food Tech teaching spaceOur modular options are ace.With a number of features, They’re sure to please teachers,As a flexible food learning place.If you need some funding advice,We’ve listed some sources (coz we’re nice!).You can apply for the moneyWithout cost causing worrySo you will not need to think twice.For a refurb or emergency hire,Our temporary kitchens will inspire.They’ll keep your meals running (Our facilities are stunning!)During building works, after flooding or fire.And so ends our school kitchens verse -We don’t think it could be any worse!Though poetry’s not our thing,Kitchens are, so give us a ring - We’d very much like to converse! About kitchens. Really, call us. We'd love to chat.The End.